7. Piptolepis gardneri Baker (1873: 144). Type:— BRAZIL. Minas Gerais: in Serra do Itambé, August 1840, G. Gardner 4753 (lectotype: BM! [BM000939725], designated by Loeuille et al. (2019: 93); isolectotypes: K! [K000484688, K000484689]) (Fig. 3 Q, 22 A–B). Treelet 1–2.4 m tall, virgate, densely branched. Stems corrugated towards the apex, short manicate, ochreous, old stems terete, glabrescent, dark brown, leaf scars semicircular to deltate. Leaves patent to ascending, sessile, subsessile or petiolate (0–) 1–3 mm long, pad-like leaf sheath ligulate, 1–2.5 mm long; blade oblanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate, 8–68 × 3–9 mm, apex acute to mucronate, base attenuate, discolorous, chartaceous, venation eucamptodromous, midrib adaxially impressed, abaxially prominent, adaxial surface pannose, dark olive green, abaxially hirtellous, light greyish, margins flat. Inflorescence in raceme of 3–9 pseudoglomerules, terminal at apex of branches, with leaf-like bracts at base of pseudoglomerule, 6–10 × 2–3 mm, apex obtuse, base attenuate. Capitula 3–7, pedunculate, peduncle 3–18 mm long; involucre campanulate, 8–9 mm tall × 6–13 mm diam., 6–7 seriate; phyllaries deciduous, scarious, lanate, glandular-punctate, outer phyllaries triangular, 2.1–3 × 0.8–1 mm, apex acute, light greenish; inner phyllaries lanceolate, 6–8 × 1–1.2 mm, apex caudate, stramineous with apex brownish; receptacle fimbrillate. Florets 22–23, corolla lilac, glabrous, glandular-punctate, 8–11 mm long, corolla tube 5–7 × 0.6–2 mm, corolla lobes 3.4–4 × 0.4–0.6 mm, apex acute; anthers purple, apical appendages acute; style shaft 9–11 mm long, pale lilac, glabrous throughout except for pubescent upper 1.5–2 mm beneath style-arms, style arms 2 mm long. Cypselae prismatic, 1.2–2 × 0.8–0.9 mm, 10-ribbed, glabrous, densely glandular-punctate in furrows; dark brown; pappus setae uniseriate, subequal or equal, 6–7 mm long, light stramineous, subpaleaceous, serrulate, deciduous. Distribution and habitat: — Piptolepis gardneri is known by only a few records. It is endemic to the Diamantina Plateau of the Espinhaço Range in Minas Gerais, and it is distributed in two municipalities, Serro and Diamantina, specifically on the road to the town of Milho Verde and at the protected area Parque Nacional das Sempre Vivas (Fig. 11, 23). It occurs over rock outcrops. Conservation Status: —CNCFlora (2022) classified this species as Data Deficient (DD), as it was known only by the type material at the time of its formal assessment. Because new populations have since been discovered, we provide an updated conservations status below. This species is considered Critically Endangered (CR) based on criteria B1ab(iii,iv) +B2ab (iii) (IUCN 2019). It has an extent of occurrence (EOO) of 27.594 km 2 and area of occupancy (AOO) of 12.000 km 2. It is known from approximately eight gatherings, with one population occurring within a protected area (Parque Nacional das Sempre Vivas), and another population located outside this protected area, close to a road and areas that have suffered human impact. Etymology: —The species epithet honors the Scottish botanist George Gardner (1810–1849) who collected the type material (Gardner 4753). Phenology: —Flowering and fruiting specimens were found in April and May. Notes: —This species is similar to P. oleaster due to its treelet and virgate habit, corrugated stems, attenuate leaf base, leaf with eucamptodromous venation and flat margins, inflorescence in raceme of pseudoglomerules and uniseriate pappus setae. However, P. gardneri differs by its semicircular to deltate leaf scars (vs. winged), smaller leaves (8–68 × 3–9 mm vs. 19–125 × 6–30 mm), with oblanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate blade (vs. narrowly oblong or narrowly elliptic), pannose adaxial leaf surface (vs. velutinous) and hirtellous abaxially (vs. lanate); inflorescence in pseudoglomerules, seldom solitary capitulum (raceme of pseudoglomerules) and prismatic cypselae (vs. cylindrical). Both species have populations occurring in Serro [see also P. monticola notes]. Representative Specimens Examined: — BRAZIL. Minas Gerais: Serro, estrada Milho Verde, [-18.24939918°, -43.6002998352°], fl., 19 May 2008, J. N. Nakajima et al. 4833 (HUFU); ibid, [-18.2917222°, -43.00719444°], 972 m, fl., fr., 8 April 2009, I. M. Franco et al. 877 (DIAM); ibid, [-18.53194444°, -43.4463888°], 982 m, fl., fr., 25 May 2009, M. M. Saavedra et al. 877 (HUFU, RB, SPF); ibid, [-18.53180555°, -43.442666°], 1062 m, fl., fr., 14 May 2019, J. B. Cândido 348 (UFP); ibid, [-18.52502777°, -43.44813888°], 1011 m, fl., fr., 14 May 2019, J. B. Cândido 349 (UFP); Buenópolis, Parque Nacional das Sempre Vivas, Serra do landim, [-17.8952777°, -43.76763888°], 1415 m, fl., fr., 19 May 2017, K. H. Silva & F. N. Costa 176 (DIAM); ibid, [-17.89497222°, -43.7642222°], 1302 m, fl., fr., 10 May 2019, J. B. Cândido 336 (UFP).

Published as part of Cândido, Jacqueline B., Bicalho, Monira & Loeuille, Benoît, 2025, Taxonomic Revision of Piptolepis (Vernonieae, Asteraceae), pp. 17-72 in Phytotaxa 733 (1) on page 45, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.733.1.3, http://zenodo.org/record/18419173